Watched Colonel Potter's debut episode--which includes the footage included at the end of Hunnicutt's debut--and I am always impressed at how effortlessly Harry Morgan, consumate pro that he always was, fit in with the cast. He's never less than tremendous and he is always brilliant, whether it be in the full-out comedy stuff or the weepy serious scenes.
His Colonel Potter persona was with him in The Cat from Outer Space (with co-star McLean Stevenson) and for all I know everything else he appeared in during the Mash era.
I always find it distracting when a guest star becomes a main cast member, as a completely different character! The British seem to be excellent at this. No love lost however. I much prefer Colonel Sherman T. Potter over that sniveling Major Frank Burns.
The three-disc DVD of the Mash finale, "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen" is presently on sale at FSM-favorite retailer Amazon for a mere $5.00. I'm getting it strictly for the bonus features as I have the regular edition of the finale on the S11 set.
1: Goodbye, Farewell and Amen Disc 2: M*A*S*H: Television's Serious Sit-Com Bloopers My Favorite M*A*S*H Archival Interviews Last Day of Filming Jocularity PSA's Selected Episodic Promos Just the FAQs - Game Disc 3: M*A*S*H: 30th Anniversary Reunion Fan Base Memories of M*A*S*H Unproduced Episode Script Hawkeye on the Double
It depends on why you watched it. I first saw the series when I was very young, and I very much gravitated to/preferred the serious drama of the second 'half'. Slapstick in a War just wasn`t appropriate to me... are we executing practical jokes or are we medical doctors trying to stitch back some sanity to ravaged victims? I know - I wasn`t the normal kid.
In any event, if you wanted to laugh, then the first half. If you were in it for the drama, the second.
Speaking of the middle half, I've just started season seven and B.J. Hunnicutt has officlally started his "cheesy mustache" era, which he'll have for the rest of the series. I've always liked the Hunnicutt character but not that mustache! I like that Hawkeye and Potter make fun of it at every opportunity.
Shouldn't they have been constantly smoking cigarettes on M*A*S*H? Didn't most everyone smoke cigarettes during the early 1950s? Shouldn't Radar and later, Klinger been constantly "on the scrounge" for cigarettes.? With that large yap of hers, shouldn't Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan always had a "coffin nail" in her face?
Plus, you have an "O'Reilly", a "Houlihan", a "McIntyre", and a "Burns", yet Father Mulcahy was the only Catholic at the 4077th? One might even make a (lukewarm) case for New Englanders Pierce and Winchester perhaps being Catholic.
Was smoking aloud on television back then? At least they glorified alcoholism.
Allowed, surely. Blake, Potter, Radar, Klinger and Rizzo and numerous guest characters were often seen smoking a cigar, so why not cigarettes? Hawkeye and "Beej" should have had whole subplots about their niccotine withdrawl and the ensuing hilarity.
They did drink a lot, but they even turned on booze with the episode in which Pierce said, "I'll have a drink when I want it, not when I need it." BJ also had the great line in response to Radar about drinking to feel good: "We drink to feel nothing."
There was also that friend of Margaret's who had the DTs in the OR when she was trying to kick the habit.
I forgot about cigar smoking. Cigars seem less scrutinized, perhaps because fewer people pick up the habit. Also cigars seem to be used more for "celebration" than as a daily activity.
I forgot about cigar smoking. Cigars seem less scrutinized, perhaps because fewer people pick up the habit. Also cigars seem to be used more for "celebration" than as a daily activity.
Pre-1970's, smoking was everywhere on TV. Afterwards, there were still cigar-chomping characters including Henry Blake, Columbo, and newspaper editors. Technically you don't smoke a cigar or pipe - it smokes you, like incense (unless you're using maryjane, of course). You don't inhale it or go thru 2 packs a day like butt smokers, so characters didn't even have to light up their cigars/pipes.
Being in a position of authority, I'm frequently reminded of these lines: Frank Burns (after promoted to Colonel): "The men...hate me, don't they?" Radar: "Just your guts, sir." Frank: "Well I didn't come here to be liked!" Radar: "Then you came to the right place."
I remember at the end of that episode where Hawkeye is sheltered by the Korean family after he's been in a jeep crash, and he returns with thank-you gifts for the family, and hands the father a pack of pipe tobacco and says I'll think you'll find it better than the manure you've been smoking."
